@everyone - This kid came unprepared to ask any real amount of questions or even good ones, had not even played the game... Lucky for him Craig Morrison carried the interview.

The guy also thinks MMOs should be full of non-concentual PVP forced on people with no rules but the strongest will survive among other sale/fun killing thoughts. Craig Morrison then proceeds to educate him why that's not a very good idea.

It's a good read, I guess I should have been clearer.

A lot of the game is steering ships around the ocean firing various weapons (but you can left and right pad to anything you got deployed). If that kind of game is boring to you, then stay clear. This game has high "interface shock". You know where you have to spend hours and hours just to feel comfortable and in control before you start to like it (especially submarines which become awesome fun when you get the hang of it). But when you do get it all under your belt, it's simply amazing. Especially around Java Sea, Midway, and Guadacanal (I am sure it's even better later I am about 10 missions in). These missions start taking longer to play. Some as long as an hour. I have gone back to them all too to get the gold medal for each mission. The real bummer is that you can only use 1 powered up unit per mission. It can be something as awesome as the Yamato class battleship, to choosing to use swarms of Shinden (an extremely powerful and fast plane with rockets).

Shinden video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJs1O2HSosE

Yamato class:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-FaVVtjItg


This comment was edited on May 18, 2009, 16:22.

Claiming operating at a loss is good for the taxman. They will ride that wave as long as they can, and stretch it to the max.

I have played Battlestations Pacific for about 20 hours now. I am fluent in all of the controls and combos (some were hard to figure out like RB+LS for looking around an aircraft). I have to say it's pretty damn good now that I have seen everything from subs, destroyers, cruisers, battleships, and tens of aircraft. I have yet to get in to the skirmish part of the game.

I chose to play Japan first (saving the best for last). The game motivates you to hit all primary, secondary, and a special secret objective each chapter. If you do, you get a gold medal, and unlock craft to use in future fights, or even to return and get a gold in a mission you did earlier.

You can order up boats and planes to your liking once you progress far enough. Cruising around in a fleet with 8 squadrons of planes in CAS/CAP is a pretty amazing feeling. Or when you storm an island to take it over. I have been catching some of the special pacific shows on Military channel last couple of days and it's just added even more appreciation to the game. I am finding it harder and harder to put down and now really reccomend this game if you like WWII pacific games.

Just be glad this MMO Gamer dude doesn't actually have any influence on MMO creation (if you care at all, another case of completely too young, too ignorant, and too clueless, to be interviewing anyone). Craig Morrison has earned my respect and actually knows his stuff. Too bad they are both ragging on WoW for a foundation. Enough with that stuff, WoW earned it's stripes. Move on.

This is a blatant rip off of the classic table top hobby game "Wiz War". Wiz War is a blast and highly replayable. It's a board game, but here you play it 3D real time. As someone said, some Dungeon Keeper and Diablo game play elements. I can see how on paper this would be a good idea. However the art work makes me think of Dungeon Runners. Looks too silly to be engaging for me, and the draw of Wiz War was that it was turn based.

Where's GH: ACDC?

I am starting to like this game a lot more once I figured out all the commands that can be issued from the main strategy map. Things like linking ships into a group, how to storm an island, issuing repair orders, launching new units, etc.. Don't expect much from plane to plane fighting. It's not bad, just done better in other games.

The more I play, the more I learn, and the more I come to actually appreciate the game. I think the Japanese should have spoken real Japanese, and had subtitles for cut scenes (the text is already there for mission starts). Letters from Iwo Jima did this well, and I think that is how it should have been done here. With the voice now, it's part comical, part strange. It just didn't sit right at first but I am getting used to it.

The reason I say we will see it is two fold. If Sacred 2 and other games that companies of a much lower status can pull it off, and do it well, it's almost obligatory for Blizzard to show they can, as well as tap the extra copies they can sell to further inflate how many total sales they can get from their titles, not to mention added profit.

The second reason I say this, is that imho Xbox has no other choice but to release a new machine soon (as in a year or two well past bad economic times if all goes well). I expect this to be a 360 2.0 even if it's called something else. About the time we will see Diablo 3. We already know they have been consulting with each other about another system if reports can be believed.

I also just think it's obligatory in this day and age, because the next gen consoles (not this gen) are going to basically catch up to PCs like no other generation, due to technology diminishing returns on the PC. There is less and less of a gap between lap tops and desk top PCs, that to me demonstrates the console gap closing as well.

I would bet we see Diablo 3 go console this time around. Starcraft should, but not sure if it will.

I want to like this game. It's kind of the only Xbox exclusive for awhile. During the training missions I was really liking it. You have to realize this game has a steep learning curve for the planes that are flying 60-220 mph (steep angles will kill you). They did this pretty good I think. The bad part came when they started with the stereotypical Japanese speaking english, and subs firing on ships in Pearl Harbor. That was a huge let down on historical accuracy as the only subs ever to fire in PH were mini subs, and 4 of 5 were accounted for.

Anyways on to the game play, I find myself hating the lack of features allowing for good situational awareness. I seem to get tagged by other fighters with no way to actually see it coming, much less avoid it. That in it self is a huge let down. I think there is a lot here to like. I may need more time to figure out some features but I am stuck between love and hate at the moment. It could portray more of a flight sim feel, it's all there, it just holds you back. That in and of itself is pretty frustrating. I will stick with it and hopefully recant some of this along with some praise in areas that need mentioning.

The problem with the new Bionic Commando is that it already seems like a distant 3rd place when matched up against games like InFamous and Prototype. I don't know if it can even step up to the plate with these 2 titles, even with it's pedigree. I am very underwhelmed by the screens and Qore footage I have seen. I hope I am totally worng, that the game rocks big time. It does have the CTF grabble hook going for it which might make it a multiplayer hit.

This comment was edited on May 18, 2009, 00:26.

I didn't think the last one was too bad, but it wasn't great. And this franchise deserves something amazing when you have subject matter of 10 story tall robots that can practically morph in to whatever the writer wants (not to mention a built-in childhood following). I actually sat my 70 year old mother-in-law down to watch the Blu-ray version of the first movie (she remembers buying the toys for her kids). Cranked up the volume, the walls were shaking with the sub woofer going off! She loved every minute of it! Good times, really!

I have only offered ways to get BD on the cheap, and that it's light years better than upscaled on the right equipment. I have already stated I don't care if anyone else lowers their expectations and doesn't adopt BD, it doesn't affect me. However, people on the fence should know if you have the disposable income, it's well worth it. Even if some dude claims to have vistied someone's basement and has seen something better (which apparently isn't for sale yet). I have a friend who worked for AMC, who a couple week ago, checked out the first brand spanking new high end digital theatre (first in America). It's in Kansas City I think, and not open to the public yet. From what I understand it puts everything to shame, but it's not in my living room, nor will it be for a long time. Also, Davey Jones looks amazing (not fake), buy a real HDTV (Brands with an S!).

This comment was edited on May 16, 2009, 22:07.

Qore is this subscription based service PSN offers. Basically an electronic PS3 news-zine (which has started sucking big time the last 6 months). Anyways, they interviewed the guys working on Damnation. Now, I am not trying to hurt anyones feelings, but, it was damn near classic SNL level of humor about how this thing would be cool, and we are gonna do this, and that, and it will be cool! The game looked pretty average with a bunch of caffiene monkeys all worshipping it like it's better than energy drinks and porn. I was pretty amused as you can tell (But the Naruto dude still gets the funniest nerd award). I don't know how good this game will be, but I don't have very high expectations.

@Cutter - damn, I bet that Spock quote is from the silver eye'd people episode with that semi famous blonde actress. I think it was callled "Where no man has gone before".

This comment was edited on May 16, 2009, 05:27.

The price of BDs need to drop and they will. But as a technology, it's totally worth it. Get a PS3 or pick up a refurb bdp1200 (I did). The cost is like $185. They aren't souped up but they have HQV and play BDs. For the price of one bought BD you can rent 16-20 a month. That's not expensive. If I divide the cost over 4 people living here then we pay about 40 cents a person, per movie. That beats the hell out of the price for a theatre, or even buying a reguler DVD.

I remember reading that the Little Sisters you adopt are invulnerable to enemies in Bioshock 2. When they get attacked by splicers, it just slows down their harvesting, which means that you have to fight off more waves of baddies. She doesn't have a health bar.

Awesome! That is actually cool, and honestly, a relief. I wouldn't have a problem with in the least.

I hope they remodulate the little sister voice to the same pitch as the old ones. It also doesn't sound as scary as the original. To me their voices are kind of trademark sound bytes for the franchise. I know it's hard to make new speech and get the same person or even get the same sound, but you gotta try harder lol. Maybe I will get used to it and then they will both sound "right".

The way to maximize BD use is rent from Netflix. 16 a month at $26 bucks isn't far off from a buck a piece (1.67). That's 4 a week. You could get 20+ a month if you really watch and return (1.30). But if you are really that worried about shaving a few cents off a movie rental, then my advice is don't ever look at Blu-ray, it will spoil you.

I actually liked POTC2... But more importantly, it wasn't whether the movie was good or not, it was about the Academy Award winning computer animation on Davey Jones. It will blow you away if you watch BD on a Samsung.

I go crazy for Samsung Blu-ray players too. Because if you get the right one, they have HQV which imho is the best upscaler technology in existence. So you can still check out the buck a pop so-so movies you really don't need a BD for.

This isn't theory, it's what I do. You can lower your expectations if you want. Doesn't affect me.

This comment was edited on May 15, 2009, 20:02.

My impressions of the PS3 version levels 1-20... May post more after finishing the campaign.

Sacred 2 is basically an open world MMO style game, tailored for the 1-4 player experience, and heavily based on games like Diablo and Titanquest.

There are a decent amount of things to like about Sacred 2, MMO stuff like mounts and a very, very large open world. Teleports to move around the map. A day and night cycle. Good ambient sounds. Random npc chatter which actually is somewhat humorous. You can play it on a console! The music is varied and for the most part amazing. Magic weapons have unique particle effects depending on their imbued powers. If you can tolerate running all over the place to do quests (optional but that's where the story is) then this game may be something you like.

For all the good in Sacred 2, there is an equal portion of bad. Things like killing the same enemies in droves for 10 levels then running in to the next filler group of monsters and kill those for another 10 (there are some different monsters sprinkled in but for the first 20 levels are mainly Kobolds and then Undead).

Overall Sacred 2 feels like a bad book, hampered by decent to plain aweful voice overs. The game constantly tries to be clever and funny, even self depricating, which back-fires and ruins the experience.

In Sacred 2, the loot all seems partly generic. It's hard to get excited about loot as it feels all the same with different numbers, even if they actually improve your character. This is mainly due to the character system being embedded through multiple windows, and being connected in ways that aren't readily apparent. Expect to spend a lot of time figuring out the finer points. But still, some things like "Damage over time -10%" will probably still leave you scratching your head. With time and effort reading associated web sites, some of these things become clearer, the loot system starts to mean more, and you start feeling in control.

Comparing Sacred 2 to Diablo 2 is no competition, as the 10 year old game destroys Sacred 2 based on fun factor, appeal, craftsmanship. Even Titanquest beats this game black and blue in those areas. Diablo and Titanquest have more understandable character systems, their loot was more exciting. Those stories flowed complete with environmant changes. All weaknesses to some extent in Sacred 2.

Bottom line, the character system of Sacred 2 is not very intuitive, but it's a pretty good one once you digest what is important, and understand it's convoluted layout. It's hard to get past the feeling that no matter where you go, whatever you do, it's just running from dot to dot (quest markers), and killing the same stuff. After awhile the game feels rinse-repeat on all it's gameplay. But for those who like grinding characters, sifting through loot, and playing the shopping game, Sacred 2 is sufficient to tide you over until Diablo 3. If you could stomache a game like Two Worlds, then you should be able to enjoy this as well.


This comment was edited on May 15, 2009, 17:51.

I was on the Blu-ray kick early on. I have 3 BD players and 2 PS3 in the house. Right now, nothing compares to BD, streamed video of any quality sucks ass compared to BD. Upscaling is no real contender either. It's a good substitute but Blu-ray spoils you. The world won't be the same if you get it, you have been warned.

If you don't have a 1080p tv and Blu-ray yet, you should put that on the next purchase when affordable list. PS3+Samasung LED is a good match. As for future technology. Pioneer will have the 16x layer Blu-ray technology that will work with all existing drives which is as much or more than the GE device mentioned. Capacity is only potential. This isn't laser disc, this is an adopted, growing, DVD type media that is here to stay.

Until TVs are over a 1080p standard, you can't really get much better (years away if not a decade due to price levels). It's happening, just not over night in America. And when it does, there is nothing limiting Blu-ray drives to 1080p. They can simply go to the next level of resolution. I can honestly say that Blu-ray visuals are something I could be satisfied with unlike upscale DVD. Go watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2 on a new Samsung LED tv in a store, on a Blu-ray player. Hop to the first ship scene and the jungle scene.